LOCAL PRESS

Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue to resume in last week of January (Tanjug)

The top-level dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina will most likely resume in the last week of January, Tanjug learns. Previously, it was agreed in principle that the next meeting between the two prime ministers should take place in mid-January, but Kosovo PM Isa Mustafa has said that for Pristina this is conditional on visa liberalization. Meanwhile, according to Tanjug’s sources, associates of the EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini will come to Belgrade on January 13 to help break the latest impasse caused by the unwillingness of Pristina, which has been facing a political blockade for months due to the opposition of certain political groups to the implementation of the Brussels deal. On January 18, the two sides could be expected to meet at the expert/technical level in Brussels, and then at the level of PMs in the last week of January.

Djuric: ZSO imperative for success in further normalization (Tanjug)

The establishment of the Community of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) is imperative for a success in the further normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina, Director of the Office for Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) Marko Djuric said on Tuesday, adding that Belgrade would impose additional pressure and step up diplomatic activity to make it happen in 2016. The establishment of the Community will be one of the topics in the next meeting of the dialogue, expected to take place in late January, as well as the issues of the property, status and position of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Djuric told Tanjug. Belgrade insists that Pristina implements all the deals without any delays, Djuric underscored. Meanwhile, Belgrade has been working on the Statute, so the Serbian side has everything ready, Djuric said.

Dacic: The Government will do “everything” to prevent Kosovo from joining the UN (TV Pink)

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dacic has said the Government will do “everything” to prevent Kosovo from joining the UN. He told TV Pink that Belgrade “never assumed the obligation of achieving Kosovo’s membership in international organizations, but that Kosovo’s chances of that also depended on the method of decision-making in these organizations”. “It’s not the same as being a member of an international organization for medicines or even the Olympic Committee … We are not in favor of (Kosovo) entering the UN – in any case, we will do everything to make sure it does not happen,” Dacic said. Pointing out that Serbia sees talks with Pristina as status-neutral, Dacic said “we will absolutely oppose Kosovo’s entry into status-critical international organizations,” stressed Dacic. Dacic mentioned the OSCE as an example where decisions are reached by consensus and explained that Serbia does not want to allow Kosovo to join. As for the Council of Europe and other organizations, making decisions require a specific majority, he said, the agency reported. “Unfortunately, when it comes to Kosovo in Europe, our situation is the most difficult there,” Dacic said, remarking on some states’ support for Kosovo’s aspiration to join international organizations.

Mogherini: Belgrade-Pristina Agreements among EU’s 12 greatest achievements (Novosti)

The EU Foreign Policy and Security Chief Federica Mogherini has listed on her blog what she sees as the EU’s 12 greatest achievements in 2015, which include the agreements between Belgrade and Pristina. “2015 has been a tough and intense year. But it was also a year of great and important achievements, things we will bring with us in 2016. These achievements remind us that there is still much to do, and they remind us that diplomacy, multilateralism, stubborn and patient optimism can lead to great results,” she wrote. “2015 was the year when Serbia and Kosovo signed the highest number of agreements, facilitated by the European Union. The negotiations gained new pace: they will still be difficult, but both countries have taken a decisive and historic step towards European integration,” Mogherini wrote. “We opened the first chapters in Serbia’s accession negotiations, while Kosovo signed an Association Agreement. It has been a great achievement for the Balkans, and for all Europeans,” she noted

“Dacic wants to find out if early elections will be held” (Danas)

“It is normal to talk with coalition partners in an election year – elections are the subject of talks with the SPS,” the SNS Vice President has said. When asked how he sees the fact the SPS leader Dacic was the initiator of these talks “and via the media,” Goran Knezevic, speaking for Belgrade-based paper Danas, reiterated the brief comment that the talks ahead of elections are quite normal and that he sees nothing controversial in it. The Serb Progressive Party (SPS) on Monday issued a statement announcing, with no further details, a meeting with their coalition partners the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). The paper said it could not learn from the SPS what the party “expected from the meeting with the SNS.” It was told unofficially by the Socialists that it should be left to the leaders, Dacic and Vucic, to communicate what they talked about and that it makes sense for the parties to comment on the meeting after it takes place, “depending on what the leaders will announce as common guidelines.” President of another SNS coalition partner, the Movement Socialists, Aleksandar Vulin, also requested a meeting with Prime Minister Vucic and the Progressives, but is yet to receive a date for it. After the meeting of the SPS presidency two weeks ago, Dacic, who serves as the country’s foreign minister, said publicly he would invite Vucic to an urgent meeting to discuss and reach an agreement “on cooperation in the coming years, in the interest of Serbia and its future.” As he pointed out, relations and cooperation between the SPS and its coalition partner PUPS and JS with the SNS are “of key importance for Serbia’s stability and future.” Vucic then said he was surprised that Dacic used the media as a channel to invite him to such a meeting and said he would accept, noting he did not know what the SPS leader wanted to talk about. Asked whether he was satisfied with the cooperation with the SPS, Vucic said that he was “always dissatisfied only with himself.” He then added: “Everyone was working well, everyone will get popular assessment. And if they did not work well, they will receive popular assessment, as well as the many who think they are working extraordinarily – and we’ll see what the people will say. I must be that the people are the supreme judge.” “I know that many do not like it when one mentions the noun ‘the people’, but I just love it. There. To spite those who do not like to hear the people.” “Dacic is aware that Vucic determines political processes in the country. He will probably want to get definitive answers from the prime minister about whether there will be early parliamentary elections together with provincial and local. Whether he should put the party machinery in motion, or not…,” political analyst Dejan Vuk Stankovic told the newspaper. He noted that it became clear in recent days that the Socialists will not participate in elections together with the Progressives, in case of early parliamentary elections – that is, certainly not in provincial polls. “However, alliances between the SPS and the SNS are possible at local levels, there’s no question,” said he. Stankovic thinks it can be expected that today’s meeting will conclude an agreement on how to avoid “discussions” between parties in the future. “Vucic and Dacic could reach an agreement on avoiding polemics, negative relations in the coalition. This could be not only the reason for the meeting but also its outcome. We heard from SNS Vice President Zorana Mihajlovic that the SPS is the only possible ally of the Progressives, so I think the conversation will go in the direction of strengthening this attitude,” he concluded.

Two suspected IS members arrested in Pristina (RTS)

The Kosovo police on Monday arrested two men at the airport in Pristina on suspicion that they were returning from the war in Syria. It is believed that they fought on the side of Islamic State. The pair is originally from the area of the town of Gnjilane, the Albanian-language daily Zeri is reporting. The suspects have been identified as V.H., born in 1992, and F.B., born in 1997. They returned to Pristina on a plane from Istanbul, Turkey. According to the police, they left for Syria in January 2015. The police also have data that shows there are currently about 120 persons in Kosovo who returned after fighting in the ranks of Islamic State.

REGIONAL PRESS

Serb member of B&H Presidency criticizes Nikolic (Dnevni avaz, Hina)

Mladen Ivanic says Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic‘s support for Republika Srpska (RS) President Milorad Dodik is “completely inappropriate.” Ivanic, who is the Serb member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) Presidency and leader of an opposition party from the Serb entity (RS) in B&H spoke for Sarajevo-based newspaper Dnevni Avaz. He said Nikolic’s recent statements “effectively meant the taking of one side and some kind of arbitration in relations between political parties in B&H.” “My message when I speak with him (Nikolic) will be: do not interfere in our internal situation, it is our business, and we will not interfere in your internal situation because that’s your business,” said Ivanic, according to Croatia’s Hina news agency. Ivanic is this way reacted to Nikolic’s statement about “a secret plan” to topple Dodik – one he said was created by the international community with the support of opposition parties – a statement that, it has been reported, “meant he gave his unequivocal support to Dodik.” The agency added that Ivanic’s “message to Nikolic” was also that “Belgrade’s support for Dodik must not be equated with the support for the RS.” “Dodik is what the RS should be linked with least of all,” said Ivanic. He added that opposition parties in the RS can stand with the government on key issues of national interest but with not work with it “in crime, corruption and economic destruction of the RS – precisely what characterizes Dodik’s rule.”

SNSD: Ivanic forgot Serbia obligated to protect RS (Oslobodjenje)

The Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) criticized the statement by Mladen Ivanic, Serb member of the Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) Presidency that he will “tell Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic not to get involved in our affairs.” “Ivanic forgot that Serbia, on behalf of Republika Srpska (RS), signed the Dayton Agreement, and it is her right – and even more an obligation to protect the rights and interests of the Serb people and RS, as is written in the Serbian constitution. Instead of advocating for respect for Serbia’s position, Ivanic treats it in the same way as the former member of the B&H Presidency Zeljko Ivanic, who once told then-Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica to ‘keep his fingers off B&H, because he could get it by the fingers and the nose,’” the SNSD statement reads. They say that “the SDA and Bosniaks chose both Mladen Ivanic and Zeljko Komsic as members of the B&H Presidency, so it’s no wonder their statements are equivalent.” “Because of the treacherous and cowardly action of Ivanic, Bosic and Cavic in Sarajevo, RS is in danger,” the SNSD statement continues. Ivanic earlier said that he has not heard from Tomislav Nikolic, who offered open support to Milorad Dodik, but he would tell him, when they speak, that “Dodik is not RS.”

Dodik: Republika Srpska will continue to strengthen its autonomy (Srna)

Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik said that Republika Srpska (RS) was formed as a state on January 9 and that it will continue to build its statehood character and strengthen its autonomy in a legitimate way. He said that there is a consensus of both the ruling and the opposition parties in RS on the celebration of January 9 – RS Day and its Patron St.’s Day – which is good since it speaks of how much this is important for RS. “This is not an issue for measuring power or force, but this is about an attempt to redefine history and present it in a different way,” Dodik said in an interview with Sputnik. Dodik stressed that RS is not a product of war or genocide, as Sarajevo wants to impute, and said that formally, RS was formed on January 9, which is several months before the armed conflict started and that it was the expression of the will of the (Serb) people in Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) at the moment of the dissolution of the former SFRY. “RS can be in B&H as defined by the Dayton Agreement. RS does not see its future in a centralized B&H and it will oppose it,” Dodik said. Dodik said that the Serb people have good experiences with Russia, which has never asked for any concessions for the support it undoubtedly provided to RS, and this is something that must be respected. “On the other hand, we have the West which even today is asking us to give up some of our national positions, including RS, since, they say, this is a road we should take. Essentially, they are practicing on us, they do not respect the reality and do not hear that which we are telling them,” Dodik said. Dodik said that RS politics is still tied to European integration, but that RS is not ready to give up the cooperation with Russia. Regarding a referendum on the B&H Court and Prosecutor’s Office, Dodik said that procedures are being conducted by certain dynamics, that a phase at the level of the judiciary has been completed and that this should be confirmed and published by the Official Gazette. Dodik confirmed that there are pressures not to hold a referendum, put primarily by the High Representative, who is defending the violence he himself conducted, and noted that the time will come when all decisions that they made will have to be revised since they are unattainable, contrary to the international law and the B&H Constitution and contrary to the will of the people. He said that they are trying to portray the referendum as an anti-Dayton activity, and added that the referendum is about things which do not exist in the Dayton Agreement. “The B&H Judiciary is not stipulated by the B&H Constitution. The High Representative to B&H has been speculating about the international law for a number of years, has been interpreting it wrongly and using his position and power to present this to foreign countries, which accept this easily without a real insight into the reality, in order to protect his position,” Dodik said. Dodik said that nothing has been done in keeping with regulations. “New competencies can be introduced at the B&H level exclusively by the agreement of the parties; these parties are defined by the Dayton Agreement and they are RS and the Federation of B&H. Therefore, B&H is not a party, it is something that can, but not necessarily must exist. It is that which the two parties agree, nothing else,” Dodik said.

General and Local Elections in B&H will be merged (Radio Sarajevo)

Members of the Central Election Commission (CEC) of Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) organized an annual conference today in Sarajevo where they presented the activities of this institution from the previous period, and commented on a number of important topics in the electoral domain. One of the main questions that the public is interested in is the eventual merging of general and local elections in B&H. Head of the CEC Ahmet Santic said that the CEC has not received any official decision or document of any institution regarding this issue, however, he stated following: “As lawyers and legalists, we must state: For this kind of process it is necessary to change the entire set of laws, the Constitution of the Federation of B&H, laws of Republika Srpska (RS), laws of the cantons, statutes of governing units etc. If someone thinks that it can be arranged and done in this period (local elections should be held in October 2016, op. a.), we will access to legal consultation and solution.” Reminding the public that 2015 was a non-election year, the head of the CEC talked about this year’s activities, among which the most important ones were the implementation of the Law on financing of political parties and punishment of members of committees from last year’s elections. When it comes to funding of political parties, Santic revealed that 70 % of funds for political parties are coming from the budget. A total of 18.6 million BAM was allocated from the budgets from all levels of government, and 95 % (17.6 million BAM) was paid. Besides funds from the budget, most of the money for political parties is coming from the civil and similar payments, from membership fees, legal entities, property of party, gifts, income from legal entities etc.

Serbs killed in eastern B&H on Christmas Day remembered (Srna)

The 23rd anniversary of the murder of Serb civilians in Kravica near Bratunac in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H) was marked on Tuesday. A church service for all 158 victims from this town and the nearby villages was also served today, while candles were lit at a memorial site in Kravice. 49 of them were killed as the wartime Army of the Republic of B&H attacked from the direction of Srebrenica on January 7, 1993 – Orthodox Christmas Day. Seven more civilians disappeared on that day, five of which are still listed as missing. The village was pillaged, and 688 Serb houses set on fire. Naser Oric, a Muslim wartime commander in the area, was indicted by the Hague Tribunal for war crimes committed in Kravica and the vicinity of Srebrenica during the 1992-95 war in B&H. He was acquitted in July 2008. The Court of B&H is now conducting proceedings against Oric on charges of murder of three Serb prisoners in the area of Srebrenica.

Macedonian PM confirms he’ll resign “before January 15” (MNA)

Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has confirmed that he will tender in his resignation before January 15. He said he would do this to allow for the formation of an interim government that will prepare early parliamentary elections, scheduled for April 24. Gruevski said the ruling VMRO-DPMNE party will decide on it candidate for the head of this government, and “inform the public in a timely manner.” Gruevski also said he would discuss “all these issues” with EU Commissioner Johannes Hahn who is due to arrive in Skopje next week.

INTERNATIONAL PRESS

Why US sees Kosovo as its 52nd State? (Sputnik)

Amnesty of crimes during NATO aggression, bilateral legalization of Camp Bondsteel in a friendly milieu, settling the Islamic world with support to their communities in the Balkans and forcing Russia out of that same Balkans, are four reasons the US supports the independence of Kosovo, writes “Sputnik”. On Christmas (according to Gregorian calendar) Michael Kirby shows up. Outgoing US Ambassador congratulates Serbia upcoming New Year. “The normalization of relations between Belgrade and Pristina implies Kosovo’s membership in the UN,” was the content of the “greeting card”. Apart from some kind of formalization, Kirby’s statement is not new for the local public because it was earlier said that the West will do, and it does, everything to round independence of the so-called “Republika e Kosovës”. American ambassador said that his state only assists the European Union in the accession process of Serbia, and stressed that at this stage they are not insisting on anything. But why does the US insist so much on Kosovo? Why does it treat this quasi-state as if it is its 52nd state? Why spend so many resources on the whole project? “America is doing it because with single shot it would shoot down more birds. Maybe four,” said for Sputnik veteran diplomat Vladislav Jovanovic. By forcing Serbia to recognize Kosovo’s independence, directly or indirectly via the so-called Ischinger formula of two German states, the US and NATO would receive amnesty for the crime of aggression, ethnic cleansing of the Serbs in the province and depriving Serbia of all rights and property in this area of its territory, Jovanovic stated as the first reason. The second reason is America’s obligation to keep its large military base Bondsteel for the needs of KFOR, said Jovanovic. With the recognition of Kosovo by Serbia, or Kosovo’s membership in the UN, KFOR would be gone and military base would be at the level of bilateral agreement with the so-called Kosovo government. “That base is important to them because of the ambitions the US, and NATO, have towards the Middle East and eastern area in general. Constant NATO-isation of Europe, NATO’s expansion across Europe deeper, even in the direction of the Caucasus, is not done without a major objective. The objective is in the air, it only needs to be said. The base, one of the largest they have in the world and which is very important to them, is located in a friendly milieu,” explained Jovanovic for Sputnik. The third reason stated by diplomat Jovanovic is a very bad image of America in the Islamic world and very few arguments this state has to calm angered Islamic world. So, Jovanovic said, US decided to do so by supporting Islamic communities in the Balkans, and against the Christian Orthodox Serbia. “They also saw the war in B&H through that lens and to this day they give unconditional support to Islamic or Bosniak element in B&H. Aggression in Kosovo is the second goal. The third is putting Albania fully under their palm, incorporating it in the NATO and closing their eyes to its ambition to one day annex Kosovo and harbor illusions about a ‘Greater Albania’” said Jovanovic categorically. Fourth reason is, through strengthening of the Islamic-Catholic arc in the Balkans, US disables the return of the Russian presence and influence in the Balkans, Jovanovic said. “They know that this influence is one of the historical roots of Russian foreign policy in the Balkans. Russia is helping the Orthodox countries, first of all Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece,” explained Jovanovic. By strengthening the Islamic – Catholic arc, as the diplomat calls it, which practically surrounds Serbia and does not allow it to play a more significant role of Piedmont for all the Orthodox elements in former Yugoslavia, Americans – with other actions they take – influence to displace the influence and presence of Russia in the Balkans. Behind this small territory called Kosovo there are numerous large and long-term strategic and geo-strategic objectives that America has, Vladislav Jovanovic said.

“It wants the Balkans to definitely become a zone of influence of the West by forcing all the Balkan countries to enter the so-called Euro-Atlantic organizations. And if they achieve it and when they achieve it, with the help of the ‘arc’, they can say that they achieved their main geopolitical goal in the Balkans, and that is to completely displace Russia,” Jovanovic is clear. As for the Islamic world, he explains, it is very important for America to emphasize to Islamic countries the fact that America is instrumental for strengthening the Islamic element in the Balkans and strengthening that element through strengthening of their statehood. “Let’s not forget that Western ambassadors in Belgrade have only one group of friends from Sandzak, and Sandzak is just one of the areas in Serbia. They have no other, which has to prove that they have a special interest in that area, probably within the broader picture of support to the Islamic element in the Balkans,” said Jovanovic. All these are the reasons to expedite Serbia’s to, in talks with Albanians, through the EU, speed up the process in order to conclude a comprehensive binding legal agreement on (Belgrade and Pristina) normalization of relations. So-called recognition of Kosovo by Serbia is of no importance. The UN’s recognition of the so-called state is important. Nobody will dare to touch the member, because it is under the protection of the UN Charter, Jovanovic said.

British MPs tout NATO’s ‘Kosovo success story’ as reason to bomb Syria (RT)

Kosovo is often cited by liberal interventionists as NATO’s success story and now a reason for attacking Syria. However, the ongoing lawlessness in the country shows nothing could be further from the truth.In 1999, NATO bombed Yugoslavia for 78 days, culminating in the withdrawal of Yugoslav troops from the Serbian province of Kosovo. Tens of thousands were killed or maimed by the airstrikes, and Kosovo was carved out as a NATO statelet under the control of UNMIK (the United Nations Mission in Kosovo) in alliance with its local quislings the Kosovo Liberation Army (the KLA). Last month’s parliamentary debate on British airstrikes in Syria witnessed several MPs citing the operation as a great success. Labour MP Ivan Lewis was “proud of the difficult choices that we made” in Kosovo and elsewhere, which he claimed “saved hundreds of thousands of lives”. Kosovo was particularly held up by those supporting British military action in Syria as an example of how airstrikes alone, without support from ground forces, can be victorious. Mocking those who argued that “coalition action which rests almost wholly on bombing…will have little effect”, Margaret Beckett responded “well, tell that to the Kosovans, and do not forget that if there had not been any bombing in Kosovo perhaps 1 million Albanian Muslim refugees would be seeking refuge in Europe.” Conservative MP Richard Benyon concurred, adding: “I asked one my constituents––someone who knows a bit about this, General Sir Mike Jackson––whether he could remember any conflict where air power alone made a difference. He thought and said one word: Kosovo.” The argument is entirely fallacious. One obvious difference between the NATO bombing of Kosovo in 1999 and the British bombing of Syria today is the contrast in their stated aims. NATO was ostensibly bombing Yugoslavia to achieve a limited goal – the secession of Kosovo. In Syria today, however, the ostensible aim of airstrikes against ISIS is the destruction of ISIS. In other words, while the first aimed to force a concession from the force it was targeting; the other apparently aims at the total elimination of its target. While enough punishment might persuade someone to concede a demand, it will not persuade anyone to agree to their own eradication. There is, thus, no parallel in the logic behind the two campaigns, and anyone trying to draw one is being entirely disingenuous. Secondly, when the actual historical record is examined it becomes clear that, even on its own terms, NATO did not actually achieve its demands. The Rambouillet ‘agreement’ was NATO’s eleventh hour diktat to Yugoslavia on the eve of bombing, designed to be rejected in order to justify the bombing raids. The key bone of contention for Yugoslavia in this document was that it demanded NATO troops be granted full access to air fields, roads, ports and railroads across the country – that is to say, an effective NATO occupation of the entire federal republic. Obviously, as Sara Flounders and John Catalinotto of the International Action Centre have written, “no self-respecting government could accept such an ultimatum”. Instead, the Yugoslav government offered to withdraw their troops from Kosovo. This was rejected by NATO, who began bombing within days. After nearly three months of heroic resistance from the Yugoslav people, the bombing ended with Yugoslav troops withdrawing from Kosovo – without any NATO occupation of the rest of the country. That is to say, the war was brought to a close on the terms originally offered by the Yugoslavs, and not on the terms demanded by NATO at the outset: hardly the overwhelming victory claimed by the likes of British General Mike Jackson. What really gives the lie to the ‘Kosovo success’ narrative, however, is simply the condition of NATO’s statelet today. An in-depth piece by Vedat Xhymshiti in Foreign Policy Journal last month notes that “Kosovo is the poorest and most isolated country in Europe, with millionaire politicians steeped in crime. A third of the workforce is unemployed, and corruption is widespread. Youth unemployment (those aged 25 and under) stands at 2 in 3, and nearly half of the 1.8 million citizens of Kosovo are considered to be in poverty. From December 2014 until February 2015, about 5% of the population was forced to leave the country in an effort to find a better life, studies and more dignified jobs, on their uncertain path towards wealthier countries in the EU.” The British MPs’ argument that NATO’s takeover of Kosovo was achieved by airstrikes alone, without ground forces, is a lie. NATO’s allies in 1999 were the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army), a violent sectarian group who openly sought the establishment of an ethnically supremacist state – much like the forces supported by NATO in Libya, Syria and Ukraine. Once NATO had destroyed the Yugoslav administration in Kosovo, effective power on the ground passed to the KLA, who set about implementing their vision of an ethnically pure Kosovo via a series of pogroms, massacres and persecutions of the province’s Serb, Jewish and Roma populations. They gained effective control of Kosovan politics, and used this power to guarantee themselves impunity both for their historic and ongoing war crimes, and for their massive expansion of organized criminality. In December 2010, a Council of Europe report named Kosovan Prime Minister and former KLA leader Hashim Thaci “the head of a “mafia-like” Albanian group responsible for smuggling weapons, drugs and human organs through eastern Europe”, according the Guardian newspaper’s summary. Following NATO’s intervention, Thaci’s Drenica group within the KLA, according to the report, seized control of “most of the illicit criminal enterprises” in which Kosovans were involved in Albania. The report noted that “agencies dedicated to combating drug smuggling in at least five countries have named Hashim Thaçi and other members of his Drenica group as having exerted violent control over the trade in heroin and other narcotics.” The human rights investigator who authored the report, Dick Marty, commented that: “Thaçi and these other Drenica group members are consistently named as ‘key players’ in intelligence reports on Kosovo’s mafia-like structures of organized crime.” In addition to their leading role in Europe’s heroin smuggling trade, Thaci and his group were also named as having been responsible for a professional organ smuggling operation involving the kidnapping and murder of Serb civilians in order to harvest and sell their kidneys. Currently serving as both Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, Thaci’s NATO protection guarantees he has never been brought to justice for any of these crimes. Indeed, NATO-sponsored impunity has been a consistent theme amongst the new Kosovan elite. A report by Amnesty International published in August 2013 noted that “the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) singularly failed to investigate the abduction and murders of Kosovo Serbs in the aftermath of the 1998-1999 conflict” adding that “UNMIK’s failure to investigate what constituted a widespread, as well as a systematic, attack on a civilian population and, potentially, crimes against humanity, has contributed to the climate of impunity prevailing in Kosovo.” Marty’s report, too, noted the “faltering political will on the part of the international community to effectively prosecute the former leaders of the KLA”, and Carla Del Ponte, former chief war crimes prosecutor at The Hague, stated that she was barred from prosecuting KLA leaders. UNMIK’s responsibilities for police and justice came to an end in December 2008, following Kosovo’s controversial declaration of independence. It was replaced by the European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX), which, according to Amnesty International, inherited 1,187 war crimes cases that UNMIK had failed to investigate. All the signs are that the overt impunity that has prevailed up until now will be replaced by lip service to the rule of law, accompanied by the prosecution of a few low level operatives, whilst maintaining the protection for those at the top. Following the Council of Europe’s damning report, EULEX spent three years investigating the claims, eventually publishing a verdict that was a textbook case of damage-limitation whitewash. EULEX concluded that the crimes were indeed real, and were linked to leading KLA members, but refused to corroborate the names of any specific individuals involved, despite copious evidence. Thaci’s protection, it seems, is absolute. Nevertheless, in August of this year, the Kosovan parliament finally and grudgingly approved (after initially rejecting) the establishment of a special war crimes court to prosecute KLA leaders for crimes committed between 1998 and 2000. In moves highly reminiscent of scenes outside both the Libyan and Ukrainian parliaments when tentative and tokenistic legal moves were made to end the impunity of the sectarian death squads, the parliament has come under repeated attack ever since. Riots and six separate teargas attacks by the opposition have brought the normal functioning of the Kosovan parliament to a standstill. Failed state status surely beckons. Meanwhile, the credibility of EULEX, whose officials will be overseeing the establishment of the new court, was further thrown into doubt in November 2014 when Andrea Capussela, former head of UNMIK’s economic unit, released the results of an in-depth analysis of the most significant cases in which EULEX had been involved. Seven of these she claimed had only been brought after intense international pressure, whilst in a further eight, no investigation was carried out at all, despite “credible and well-documented evidence strongly suggesting that serious crimes had been committed.” She noted that “Eulex’s conduct in these 15 cases – the eight ignored ones and the seven opened under pressure – suggests that the mission tended not to prosecute high-level crime, and, when it had to, it sought not to indict or convict prominent figures”. During its six years of operating, she noted, only four convictions had been secured – three of them against only secondary figures, whilst “higher-ranking figures linked to the same crimes were either not investigated or indicted”. A senior Kosovan investigator noted that “There are people killing people and getting away with it because of Unmik and Eulex,” adding that “The political elite and Eulex have fused. They are indivisible. The laws are just for poor people,” Indeed, Eulex seem to be operating increasingly like a mafia themselves, last year, putting “pressure”, according to Amnesty International, on “journalist, Vehbi Kajtazi, who had reported alleged corruption in EULEX”. In a final twist to NATO’s ‘success story’, Kosovo has now become the largest per-capita provider of fighters for regime change in Syria. The official figure is 300 but more reliable estimates suggests the true figure is more than 1000 (from a population of 2 million), including one of the top ten ISIS commanders, Lavdrim Muhaxheri. As state education, along with most other social provision, has collapsed since 1999, Saudi-sponsored Madrasas have filled the gap, providing an extreme Wahhabi sectarian education now feeding its first generation of impoverished graduates into NATO’s new Syrian battlefields. No surprise, then, that Kosovan government’s efforts to prevent this have been “superficial and ineffective”, according to David Philips in the Huffington Post. The ‘lesson’ of Kosovo, then, is not that “airpower works” or any other such nonsense. The real lesson is what it reveals about NATO’s formula for the destruction of independent regional powers – relying on a combination of aerial bombardment alongside the empowerment of local sectarian death squads, who come to dominate the political scene in the aftermath, obliterating the rule of law and guaranteeing a dysfunctional state incapable of providing either dignity or security to its citizens. This was the same formula that was used on Libya in 2011 and currently being attempted in Syria today. Of course, for NATO, all of this is indeed a success: Yugoslavia dismembered; its resources plundered at the expense of its desperate and impoverished people; and Kosovo turned into a provider of shock troops for regime change in Syria, and transit hub for heroin and organ trafficking. If this is what NATO calls a success, we must all pray for failure.